Thursday, September 29th

Thursday, September 29th: Daily Class Outline

If you haven’t already scheduled a library session for Portfolio II, be sure to do so today. You should plan to schedule the library visit shortly after you assign Portfolio II. We suggest taking students to the library on Tuesday, October 11 th. You could also take them on Thursday, October 13 th (although the 13 th is an English Department Reading Day, so holding class optional). To set up a library session contact Sari at: sari.keilman@colostate.edu or 491 – 6952.

Lesson Objectives

Rather than meeting for class today, you will conduct individual conferences. Conferences should last about 10 – 15 minutes each and should focus on students’ progress in Portfolio I – Part C.

What to cover in conference:

During conferences you should see that students understand the purpose for this portfolio and that they are developing a constructive framework or direction for their paper. You might begin by looking at each student’s advertisement and asking them why they chose this ad. Why do they think it is significant or interesting? Then, ask them what arguments they see emerging from the ad. What assumptions does the ad seem to make? What does it imply? Feel free to ask questions that prompt critical thinking, (i.e. “I wonder why the woman in the ad is portrayed as sitting inside the Martini glass. What do you make of that?” Or, “Why do you think the bottle of Jack Daniels is wrapped in Christmas lights? What does this suggest about the product? How might this message affect viewers (especially alcoholics)?” The point here is not to take over the student’s paper or thinking process, but to encourage them to move beyond a surface reading of the text and possibly arrive at a clearer purpose/thesis.

Once the student has articulated some of the ad’s messages, ask them to develop a thesis. What is their overall interpretation of the ad? It helps here to ask students to consider what the ad is “saying” in addition to selling. To arrive at a thesis, you might ask them to fill in the blank for, “This ad is saying that…”

If students are clear on their interpretive thesis, remind them that the essay also requires a reaction to the ad’s messages. What is their response to these messages? For example, do they support an ad’s message? Do they disagree with its implied arguments? Do they find it inappropriate for the target audience, but fitting perhaps for another audience? What is their reaction to what the ad is saying?

Some students may bring a draft of their paper to conference (especially if you require them to). In this case, read through the section of the draft that the student most wants you to look at and provide appropriate feedback.